Sir Jim Ratcliffe 'set to make' brutal sacking decision leaving Man United staff 'shaken'

Vicious staffing cuts at Old Trafford are expected to continue under the leadership of Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos.

Manchester United came under the partial ownership of Ratcliffe last year and his Ineos group took control of the football operations at the club.

Ratcliffe is reportedly willing to consider selling Ligue 1 club Nice to Saudi Arabia in order to increase his holding in the Red Devils, a move that might not go down too well with supporters who have every right to question the decisions that have been made on Ratcliffe's watch.

Cost-cutting behind the scenes has been widely criticised and new reports indicate that another unpopular decision is in the works.

"Manchester United staff have been shaken after learning the club have told their longest-serving employee, and their main point of contact with UEFA and the Premier League for match operations, that her job is at risk of redundancy," reports The Times.

The employee in question is Marie Marron, who has worked at Man Utd for 47 years since joining as the personal assistant to the club secretary, becoming a 'key figure in first-team logistics' according to Matt Lawton.

"Marron was the chief co-ordinator for United’s historic treble in 1999 and was among five long-serving staff who were honoured by the club sponsors in 2013 for their 'exceptional dedication and commitment' to the United team," writes Lawton.

"But... The Times understands the news was broken to Marron in a face-to-face meeting that she was expected to leave at the end of the season.

"She is understood to be devastated by the news, having been at Old Trafford since 1978."

Sir Alex Ferguson greets Sir Jim Ratcliffe at a Manchester United game in November (Image: Getty)

Ratcliffe's strategy is in keeping with typical billionaire thinking but wholly neglects the unique social and cultural role of football and its clubs.

There might be financial justifications for swingeing cuts at Old Trafford but Ratcliffe is playing with fire if he believes football supporters don't care about the way their clubs treat the people who work for them.

Match-going Man Utd supporters have a keen sense of how business should be conducted in the Corridors of Dreams and an impressive track record of making their voices heard, not least when the football results don't balance out the difficult choices.

"Ratcliffe has made no secret of the need to make significant savings to ease United’s financial problems, with widespread redundancies aimed at reducing the club’s overall workforce from 1,250 to about 700," adds Lawton.